


5 Proposals

by thelma_throwaway



Category: Naruto
Genre: 5 Things, Canon Divergent, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, fix it lord please
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26897296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelma_throwaway/pseuds/thelma_throwaway
Summary: “My mom wants me to ask you to marry me.” Yoshino’s marital machinations have become a running joke in the hokage’s office. “So? What do you say?”“Oh, um.” Sakura taps her chin with her pen as if in deep thought. “No.”——five proposals (no ring required)
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Nara Shikamaru
Comments: 9
Kudos: 319





	5 Proposals

1\. The Ring That’s a Shogi Piece

Its game one thousand of who knows how many. A thousand more, he hopes, now that he’s found a serviceable adversary. 

Not that Sakura even approaches Asuma as far as skill and experience. But she does retain the element of surprise. 

Shikamaru looks from his trapped king to the tip of her tongue, poking mischievously between her lips, triumph blossoming on her face.

He lets out a surprised sigh. “Marry me.”

2\. The Ring that’s Someone Else’s

“Sorry to hear about you and—“

Shikamaru lights her cigarette to shut her up . “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She shrugs and smirks, coughs a little. She only bums cigarettes when they’re alone, and he shakes his head a little every time he finds himself shimmying two from the pack without her asking. 

“Sucks.” 

He raises a brow and grunts.

“For the best, though.”

He wrinkles his nose and doesn’t look up. 

Sakura sighs, smokes her cigarette, kicks her feet. After a while a grin creeps over her face.

“What are you going to do with the ring?” 

“Woman, the hell is wrong with—”

She giggles and darts in to land a kiss on his furrowed brow. “There’s the guy!”

He smiles, tries not to smile, hates that he’s smiling at all while pleasantly surprised to find one on his face.

“Huh. I dunno what I’ll do with it.” He shakes out another pair of cigarettes. “You want it?

3\. The Ring that’s a Joke

“Hey— Sakura.”

She looks up from her scribbling but not too fast. She recognizes the sarcastic scratch of the voice, knows if it was serious he wouldn’t have greeted her at all. Just appeared at her shoulder in a shower of leaves and smoke to whisper some important detail before disappearing again.

“Yes?” Her smile is sweet, with a mischievous twitch ready to catch whatever it is he’s about to throw her way. Shikamaru’s head is poked through the door, the muted commotion of Team 10 behind (can’t you finish that later— you know I need it— hurry up Shik— don’t rush him!).

“My mom wants me to ask you to marry me.” Yoshino’s marital machinations have become a running joke in the hokage’s office. It was only a matter of time before the Nara matriarch got to her name— below several forgettable Hyuuga due only to her lack of clan affiliation and above some more suitable Yamanaka thanks to her abilities and position. “So? What do you say?”

“Oh, um.” Sakura taps her chin with her pen as if in deep thought. “No.”

“Thanks!” He salutes and she laughs.

“If she asks I’ll tell her you cried,” she calls after him but only his shadow remains to stick out its tongue. The rest of him is already headed down the hall (what a shitty proposal— it wasn’t a real— Yosh-san is going to— I’m telling her you didn’t even — stay out of it both of you!)

“Why didn’t you say yes?” Shizune peers at her across the desk. 

“He was just joking. Everyone knows they’re trying to marry him off.” 

“Cute couple,” Tsunade yawns from under a stack of papers, startling them both. They’d forgotten she was there. “Shoulda said yes.”

Sakura blushes. “He was joking.” 

4\. The Ring that’s a Lighter

Kurenai knows before he does. Of course.

Women.

They’re sitting outside the dango shop, Mirai chattering between them as he debriefs a clusterfuck of a mission so fresh the cuts on his forearms are still pink and look ready to start weeping blood again at any moment. 

“There you are!” Before he can stop the twitch of anticipation in his brow, Sakura’s green glowing palms are erasing the raw scars on his arms and hands. “I heard you got back last night. Don’t be like uncle Shik when you grow up, Mirai! Always check in at the hospital.” 

The little girl giggles and waves a half eaten dango dangerously at Sakura.

“I think we can spare a fresh one,” Kurenai sighs and offers her a stick of dumplings from the tray.

They chat for a bit, Sakura smiling all the while at the way Shikamaru lets the little girl pinch and mash his face with sticky hands and rummage through his pockets. When a tiny palm darts into the pouch over his left shoulder where he keeps his pack, he catches it gently and distracts her with a paper tag that erupts into a shower of soap bubbles.

“That reminds me.” Sakura slaps herself on the forehead. “The whole reason I was looking for you.” 

She produces a silver lighter from a pocket on her hip and slides it into Shikamaru’s palm. His fingers flex closed for a moment around hers as he accepts the warm weight of it in his hand and then her touch is gone. The calloused pads of his palm tingle.

“Thanks,” he mutters, averting his gaze as she rises from the bench.

“Told you you’d be back for it,” she teases before tousling Mirai’s hair one last time. “Thanks for the snack!” 

The little girl's gurgling nonsense fills the silence following Sakura’s exit. 

Kurenai waits a moment, but knows better than to expect him to give away his position. He looks unmistakably gloomy. 

“You gave her Asuma’s lighter?”

A pained look flashes across his face.

“Just… just for safekeeping.” Shikamaru never stammers but he’s been caught in a bad move he didn’t even consider and can’t think fast enough to maneuver out now that his mouth is open. “Just in case. I wanted Mirai to... I’m sorry, Kurenai, I should have given it to you. They deployed us—“

Kurenai holds up a hand. “That’s not what I meant.”

He frowns.

“I mean that’s something pretty precious to give to just anyone.”

“Sakura isn’t anyone,” he says tightly, testing the lighter with a flick. A little flame dances and extinguishes itself as he snaps the lid closed.

Kurenai tilts her head and raises an eyebrow.

He flicks it open again. “Oh.” 

  
  


5\. The Ring that’s a Promise

The occasion is not particularly romantic.

It still smells like ozone and fresh cut wood and wet salt in the village but the stifling dusty air in the hokage’s office is somehow more sickening.

“So,” he mutters, moving papers around with no real purpose in mind.

“Mhmm,” she responds, making herself busy with her back turned.

“You must be happy.” There’s no way to say it that doesn’t sound bitter. “Uchiha’s been pardoned.” 

“Hardly.” She tries to hide the sniffle.

“It’s what you wanted, right? Since we were kids.” 

Now he’s just being an asshole and he knows it but can’t stop so he stands as close as he dares, close enough to touch but he doesn’t reach out to still the quake in her shoulders. A heart can only take so much. 

“Uchiha Sakura, sounds n—”

“What’s wrong with you.” She slumps forward, papers crumpling under her fists instead of lashing out and it makes his mouth go dry. Another bad move, women never moved forward or back like a game piece but flew off the board entirely, slipped from your hands, found their way into your pockets. “You know— you know it was never going to be that way.”

“No.” He thinks of her resolve the day they decided to kill Sasuke— just a bunch of kids planning an assasination— how she’d wipe the tears from Ino’s cheeks with two thumbs and had softly named her team. He hadn’t been among them. Why would he be? He’d already failed once at the same missions. “I guess not.”

The words tangled on her tongue are shocked from her throat by a sudden explosion and they run to the window, flinging the dusty shutters wide for the first time in a months. It hasn’t been safe to let the sunlight in that long. 

Giant plumes of white, green, yellow sparks skitter across the sky. They realize in the same moment that it’s just fireworks and reach for each other’s hands without thinking. On the street below people cheer, and Sakura lets out a strangled sob.

“Guess we gotta get used to living,” he mutters.

“Ino’s pregnant,” she says softly and he knows what it means. There’s no more time to wallow. Their palms are still pressed together. 

“Damn.” Shikamaru shakes his head. “My moms never gonna leave me alone now.” 

Sakura lets go of his hand just long enough to make him gasp. 

Just long enough to hook her pinky around his ring finger and tug him closer. 

“Shut up and enjoy the fireworks, Shikamaru.” 

  
  



End file.
